Wild story time for anyone who wants to listen.
***Probably pretty triggering for some***
There was a protest at my school today. Everyone left 4th period and stood by the administrator's office in the hallways to symbolize our support for a classmate who is a sexual assault victim. She had reported the assault to the administrators and their solution was to go and talk to the boy who did it. He said that the girl was lying, so they suspended her. She was suspended for HIS actions, and he got away with zero punishment. He wasn't even slightly questioned after that.
So today we held a protest. Standing outside of the office, not touching anything, not vandalizing, not harming anyone. Until one kid started banging on the office windows, which we told him REPEATEDLY to stop doing. They told everyone to go back to class but we were determined to stand our ground and stand up for our classmate. The police entered the building and starting shoving students, some fell to the floor, some were pushed down the stairwell. One girl shoved the officer back.
Then there was a gunshot.
A rubber bullet was shot above the crowd. No one registered that it was a rubber bullet until later, so to all of us, it was just a gunshot. Obviously we got scared and decided it was time to stop. The chanting turned to screaming and they pulled out their tazers. We were running back to our classes when, on top of being tazed, we started getting pepper sprayed. The mist filled the halls and you couldn't even be in the classrooms without choking on it. Some had it in their eyes, on their clothes, I had inhaled a lot of it. I had to get hooked up to a breathing machine when I got home.
A boy from a few of my classes was beaten unconscious and dragged by the police. A girl in my grade had a seizure after being tazed. We were choking and puking because of the pepper spray and it was just a terrifying situation.
I never want to go into that school again.
